'Wok' Fried Veggies (non asian style)

Ingredients (Should be enough for 3-4 persons):

1 zucchini (some zucchini peels are a bit bitter so if you don't like that take it away :))
1 large carrot (Sliced)
1 medium sized broccoli (cut to bite size)
1 medium sized cauliflower (cut to bite size)
1 medium sized red onion (cut into big chunks)
1 pepper (any colour you desire, cut into chunks)
A few champ mushrooms sliced
1 clove of garlic (minced)
1-2 tbsp of Olive oil or any Veggie oil
Herbamare - Herb seasoning
Marjoram (Meirami)

Optional:
a teaspoon of butter
(You can add other veggies to your liking for example daikon, radish, celery (these are good raw so quick stir fry works as well))

Tip: If you don't like crunchy carrots you can steam or boil them before hand with the cauliflower. Roughly 10 mins-15 mins.

Method:

• Heat oil and fry onions with garlic until fragrant (beware they burn easily if you use too high heat)
• Throw in the mushrooms, zucchini and pepper then toss it around until it gets some colour.
• Throw in the carrots and cauliflower and continue stiring. Lastly the broccoli and any remaining veggies and toss until it achieves some color. Then spice it up with some herbamare seasoning and Marjoram.
• If you're adding the butter do so now and then cook to how you desire your veggies (I prefer them al dente but when I cook for my daughter it has to be a bit well done as she's lazy to chew.).

Notes: The word 'wok' is used as most pan fried toss veggies are called wok veggies...I don't use a wok, just a simple Tefal pan will do. The deeper the better so that you can easily stir it around, so don't worry about getting a wok. Even a cast iron pan will do =).

Here's what the Herb Seasoning Looks like from the Finnish stores...and it's not thaaat expensive =) (Only if you buy a couple of kilos <_< )

New recipes for April

I have a few recipes coming up by request I'll have to write up and post. Since I don't have pictures it irritates me. I can guarantee that this post will look boring >.<":

• Banana Cake
• Fried Glass Noodles
• Vegan Friendly Chocolate Mousse Cake (Photo Missing)
• Tom Yum Goong (Sour and Spicy Thai Soup with Shrimp/Prawns)

17th July 2011 -

I've been a bit lazy but I assure you I'll get this updated as soon as I'm on holiday and I don't have a two year old testing my patience day in day out so that I find some peace and time to do it.

I'm adding one more recipe here for a friend who would like some summery veggie recipes =)

• 'Wok' fried summer harvest! =)

Indian Muruku Snack

Muruku

Ingredients

2 dl Rice flour
1 dl Urid Flour (Black dahl flour)
1 dl Besan/gram flour (Chickpea flour)
1 dl butter/margarine (salted or unsalted) (soften at room temperature)
1- 1 1/2 dl water to knead
2 tsp of red chili powder (use indian chili powder)
1 tsp of white cumin seeds (whole jeera)
2-3 Tbs of Sesame seeds (or as much as you desire, can be omitted if allergic)
1 tsp of salt (if using salted butter...if not then add a small dash more...not too much!)
1 pinch of Asafoetida powder (optional)
Oil for deep frying

Method

• Put all dry ingredients in one bowl and mix them (Rice flour, Urid flour, Besan Flour, Red chili powder, cumin seeds, sesame seeds, asafoetida (if using) and salt.
• Add the soften butter into the dry mixture and pinch in to mix.
• Add water a little at a time to form a soft dough.
• Heat oil on mediu,.
• Place a lump of dough into a Muruku Maker(this is as close as it gets). Using the single star pattern, press out the muruku dough in a spiral shape on a lightly greased plate or directly into hot oil (only attempt this if you know what you're doing!)
• Fry until the murukku is light golden brown in color
• Place murukus over newspaper or kitchen paper towels to drain excess oil
• Allow the murukus to cool before serving.
• Store the muruku in an air tight container (should be consumed within a week)

Baking out of a new book

In the near future I'm going to be making some delicious looking Cheesecakes out of Junior's cookbook. I got the book from a friend who came to visit me and brought this book along with her. I bought the book along with some other stuff from Amazon and since most of the items were not shippable to Finland hence this was why I had my friend bring this over. I'll post a few photos of the cheesecakes as well as my feedback on how it turned out. If you can't wait, go get your own copy from Amazon! ^^ (Ps: Yes I'm testing out all sorts of way to monetize my website!)

Marble Mascarpone Cheesecake (cookie base, baked)

Marble Mascarpone Cheesecake

Ingredients:

Cookie Base:

120 gr -130gr digestive biscuits (crushed, or I just use a coarse blender to smash it to pulp)
30 gr sugar
65 gr butter (melted)



Cheesecake batter: 

70g bittersweet chocolate chopped     } To be melted
5 Tbsp water                                      }  and mixed together
1 pack (250 gr) Mascaporne cheese
1 pack (200gr) Philadelphia Cream cheese
170 gr sugar
50 ml of heavy cream + 1 Tbsp of cornflour (optional)
4 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract or 2 tsp of vanilla sugar


Method:

• Prepare a 24 cm springform pan with baking sheet and butter well.
• Melt butter in microwave at low heat. Crush the digestive cookies and add sugar. Mix well with melted butter and press evenly into a prepared pan.
• Bake in the oven at 160°C-165°C for about 10 mins. Once ready remove from oven and fill the deep baking tray with hot water about 2 cm high.
• Prepare a bain marie for the chocolate and water (or just boil some water and place a smaller pot over to melt the chocolate with the water. YES melt them together!) Set the mixture aside to cool.
• Now prepare the cheesecake filling by using a mixer.
• Beat the cream cheese with the sugar and vanilla until smooth. Then add the mascarpone and beat until smooth. If using cream beat in the cream and sieve in the cornflour and continue beating until smooth.
• Add eggs one at a time beating into the batter until even and smooth ;) (yes...smoooooth ;))
• Ladle about 1/10 of the batter into the chocolate mix and fold until ...yes you guessed it...smooth!

• Now pour the vanilla batter on to the cookie base. Then pour the chocolate batter over the vanilla base. Use a fork to create swirls or marbley effect.
• Cover the bottom (halfway up is enough) of the springform pan with aluminium foil to prevent water from getting into the cookie batter. Place the pan on top of the water (this baking is called the warm bath method) and bake at 150°C for about 1 hour (if you're using fan assisted check sooner so that the cheesecake doesn't brown...like mine :( )

Notes: 22nd January 2011: A friend suggested to use round cylindrical rod like the handle of a wooden spoon to give better swirl patterns. As I didn't have anything cylindrical available I used a fork. I'd take his advice!

An early dinner this Saturday

I'm planning a weekend special of my own version of Chinese dinner. Back when I was in Malaysia my grandma would sweat away in the kitchen to prepare our favorite dishes. We kids were so spoilt we would rather go out and eat at McDonald's than enjoy a good home cooked meal. Now I miss everything she's done for me. I sort of regret not enjoying it more while I was back home. I never imagined I'd be living in a country where getting decent Asian home cooked meal was like winning the lottery. The little things like fresh popiah skin (spring roll skins), fresh laksa noodles, fresh egg noodles, beansprouts, soya sauce (thin or dark), chillies and other fresh produce that makes great Asian cooking.

I am happy that we do have a couple of good Asian stores in Hakaniemi that import these fresh produce for me to make the food at home. It's alot of work but when you're desperately wanting to eat something that's not readily available you'll slave in the kitchen to make it work. I'm not the best cook in the world and I get away with making 'close-to' tasting food. So keep watching this space for my ridiculous recipes! I'm also going to venture and write a review on the asian stores in Finland, well the ones I go to anyways. I do have my preference but I'm not going to be bias. If they allow me to write a story on their store I'll be happy to share my findings :).

Anyhoo...This weekend I'm going to be making chicken-crabmeat soup (thick cornstarchy with egg type ;)) and serve fried siew pak choy, fried fish with ginger-garlic-chilly-soy sauce, black pepper beef and a four veggie stew with sausages xD (This is because my daughter loves the preservative free sausages I buy and I thought since we are having guests I'm going to spoil her a little, maybe the little guests would like these too). I'll serve all this with Jasmine rice and red rice mix. Does it sound yummy? ^^ Alright! you know how I hate writing my blog without photos but since I had been ill the past few weeks that I haven't been in a picture taking mood. However I'm going to take photos of what I'm serving this weekend, hopefully they'll be presentable and on top of that tasty. I can't help myself so I'm going to entertain you with a photo of my dearest Alyssa who's all poofed cleaning grandma's floor during Christmas! xD Oh the drama queen xD!

Alyssa all tired cleaning xD

Struck by Pneumonia at Christmas >_<"

It was very unfortunate that I got ill during Christmas making me feel totally 'Grinchy' the entire holiday season. My lungs felt like it was drowning even if I was on dry land and I was feeling hot-cold-hot-cold-hot-cold that it made me feel not only powerless and even at some point giving up hope to ever recover. I'm normally such a computer addict that it amazed me how I couldn't be a day without the computer and yet couldn't even type in my password even if my life depended on it. Even blogging this took longer than normally as my head seems to get annoyed with the screen's brightness. Multitasking seems like a skill I no longer possess, grammar and spelling? Forget about it...

I had an interesting encounter last afternoon as I saw the sky change yellow-orangey-purple. I tried to capture the sight but I couldn't get my camera to work with my mush brain. Hopefully it shows a little.

07.01.2011-Strange colored sky over Kivistö

I'm trying to pick up on my blogging but its harder when I can't sit and stare at the screen for a long enough hence all my good ideas get swatted by the delay. Now I'll end my blogging so I can watch the Big Bang Theory (or listen to it for most part)...Since my head is just not liking the bright screen anymore >.<".